You are already very busy. How can you accomplish more? A
good place to begin is to stop doing what tradition
dictates you must do that makes your performance less
effective
If you already know what harmful traditions you and your
organization are following that keep you from accomplishing
20 times more, you can focus on eliminating them.
STALL ERASERS
Many people find it hard to challenge their old ways of
doing business, especially when stalled by tradition. Here
are some examples of how leaders have been able to erase
harmful traditions:
• Pretend to be a new management team that has been asked
to turn around the problems brought about by the prior
management's complacency.
• Take the least productive tasks you do now and delegate
them to someone else who will do them well and appreciate
the opportunity. Encourage that person to delegate her or
his least productive tasks in the same way. And so on.
• If the methods you've been using don't work, begin
controlled experiments to test all other ways even ways
that call for reversing your direction.
• Turn the best performer's approach into a simple process
that those with no experience can duplicate through
automated promptings.
• Make it easy and quick for customers to solve the
problems they encounter. Assume customers will behave
honestly if that can help speed up and ease problems.
They'll reward you with continual word-of-mouth praise and
increased loyalty.
STALLBUSTERS
Identify Your Organization's Traditions and Their Original
Purposes
Most traditions start with a purpose, but others start by
accident. Before changing something, you should find out if
the tradition still serves some useful purpose by asking
the following questions:
• What traditions does the organization have that slow down
or increase the cost of accomplishing important results?
• What benefits do these traditions provide?
• What values were intended to be served by the traditions?
• What problems are created by the traditions?
IDENTIFY EMPOWERING TRADITIONS THAT WOULD BOOST PERFORMANCE
Traditions are powerful management tools for reinforcing
good habits. People are more willing to abandon their own
traditions when they learn that another organization's
different traditions have led to high performance.
• What traditions do other organizations have that speed up
improvements, enhance the results, and effectively reduce
costs?
• Which of these traditions are consistent with your
organization's values?
• How could the traditions be made more consistent with and
supportive of your organization's values?
• Which aspects of these traditions are exciting and fun
for people in your organization?
ESTABLISH NEW OR AMENDED TRADITIONS
What aspects of your organization do you want to have
operating on automatic pilot for all employees? One of the
best examples of automatic response is a tradition at
Ritz-Carlton hotels. Whenever an employee notices or is
told by a guest about a problem, he or she has the
responsibility to fix the problem immediately. That
tradition ensures that guests receive quick, courteous
solutions while feeling encouraged to bring problems to the
staff's attention. Higher guest satisfaction and loyalty
follow from that tradition.
To create or change traditions in your organization, ask
the following questions:
• What are the three most useful traditions your
organization could have?
• How can the new traditions be established so that
everyone will be delighted?
• How can you combine elements of existing traditions with
useful elements of these new traditions?
• What has been the best way that your organization has
previously launched traditions?
***************************************
With your new, helpful traditions replacing the harmful
ones you have now, you will soon have much more time and
energy to focus on creating ways to achieve 20 times more
with the same time, effort, and resources.
Copyright 2007 Donald W. Mitchell, All Rights Reserved
----------------------------------------------------
Donald Mitchell is chairman of Mitchell and Company, a
strategy and financial consulting firm in Weston, MA. He is
coauthor of six books including The 2,000 Percent Squared
Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution, and The 2,000 Percent
Solution Workbook. Free advice on accomplishing 20 times
more is available to you by registering at
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